Escolastico Arzu got an early birthday present from God, his daughter said yesterday.

Her dad is the construction worker who survived a desperate leap from the Tappan Zee Bridge on Tuesday after he was set ablaze in a fiery traffic accident that claimed the life of a friend.

Arzu, 43, was plucked from the Hudson River by bridge workers and firefighters and was taken to Westchester Medical Center, where he was in critical but stable condition with burns covering 40 percent of his body.

“He’s doing well, but he’s still in a lot of pain,” said Kenia, 19, the oldest of his six daughters.

She said her dad was upset he couldn’t save his friend and co-worker, Angel Norales, who was killed when his stalled car burst into flames after being rear-ended on the bridge by a tractor-trailer.

“He said he tried to help him, but he couldn’t – he was burning and his seatbelt was on. That’s when he jumped out the window. . . . He didn’t want to die burning, so he jumped from the bridge.”

“God saved his life three times,” she said outside the family’s apartment in the South Bronx. “First the truck hit him, then he got on fire, then he jumped 70 feet from the bridge.

“He was protected,” she said. “I think it was his birthday present.”

Arzu, a native of Honduras, will turn 44 on Monday.

Relatives of Norales are trying to raise money to fly his body to his native Honduras for burial.